Simon Jordan and Jim White clash over Rooney’s capability of managing Everton
Wayne Rooney has been linked with taking over from Rafa Benitez at Everton, but Simon Jordan has claimed on talkSPORT he is not ready for such a job.
With the Spaniard under growing pressure at Goodison Park, Jim White has claimed that the Derby County manager could be perfect to take over from him, but Jordan is having none of that.
The former Crystal Palace owner believes that Rooney, 36, is still learning the ropes at the Championship outfit and is not close to being capable of managing a club as huge as the Toffees.
White said (as shared on talkSPORT Twitter account): “Wayne Rooney constantly linked with the manager’s job should it become available.”
Jordan fired back: “Give it a rest, come on! This is a grown-up football club. It may not behave that way sometimes under Moshiri’s ownership because it doesn’t have financial control, it doesn’t have a youth development policy, it doesn’t have any achievement and it doesn’t employ any manager that brings success, but come on now, that is the blind leading the blind.
“This is a big boy’s job, he’s not a big boy in management’s term. He’s a minnow. He’s learning his trade at Derby.”
White: “A minnow?”
Jordan: “Come on, he’s management minnow and I know you’re not being serious.”
White: “I’m being serious.”
Jordan: “It cannot possibly be a serious notion that Wayne Rooney is capable of managing Everton.”
Spot on?
The Toffees have had the likes of Roberto Martinez, Ronald Koeman, Sam Allardyce, Marco Silva, Carlo Ancelotti and Benitez in the dugout since Farhad Moshiri became majority owner of the club, and Rooney just does not come close to any one of them in terms of managerial experience.
While he managed to keep Derby up in 2020-21 at the last minute, he has simply not done enough to be handed the reins of such a club like Everton.
They are in a lot of mess right now having had nothing to show for the £500million they have spent since 2016, and Rooney is not just fit for the current project.
He is no Frank Lampard, but the fact that the former Chelsea star struggled when handed the Stamford Bridge job after impressing at Derby speaks volumes.
Managing in the top-flight is one of the toughest jobs in the game, and should the club look to part ways with Benitez soon, giving the job to someone like Rooney could be another big mistake.
They will not be short of applications should the Spaniard gets the sack, but they can definitely do better than their academy graduate.
In other Everton news, the Toffees are plotting January loan-to-buy bid for centre-mid hailed by Jack Grealish last month.
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